Colombia's leading presidential candidate was prevented from entering. The 17,000-strong FARC said it closed off the entry road after skirmishes Friday with government troops.

 BY SIBYLLA BRODZINSKY
 Special to The Herald

 BOGOTA -- Using roadblocks, metal spikes and rounds of gunfire, Colombian rebels blocked the country's leading presidential candidate from entering their
 government-granted haven Saturday in a new blow to stumbling peace talks here.

 Leading a convoy of hundreds of supporters into the enclave of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, Liberal Party candidate Horacio Serpa was turned around at a rebel roadblock on the edge of the zone. Armed FARC soldiers told him they had orders not to let him pass.

 Serpa, who has criticized what he calls rebel abuses inside the zone, was planning to hold a campaign rally there. Though government troops are banned from the haven, it is supposedly open to any ordinary citizen.

 President Andrés Pastrana strongly condemned the rebel action and in a show of authority called an emergency meeting of top political leaders to be held today in San Vicente.

 There was no indication of whether he intended to meet with guerrilla leaders on his third visit to the rebel zone since it was created in 1998. ``Today's incidents are, with out a doubt, grave for the peace process,'' he said in an forcefully worded communique released Saturday. Television images from the roadblock near the town of Balsillas showed banners strung across the dirt road reading ``Danger, minefield.'' Addressing the crowd of his supporters, Serpa held up a golf-ball sized metal barb, hundreds of which had been strewn on the road.

 ``All of you have seen the hostility that has been shown to us -- to prevent us from reaching San Vicente del Caguén,'' Serpa said, adding that the crowd had heard gunfire and mortar blasts nearby.

 The 17,000-strong FARC had warned it had closed off the road leading into the zone after skirmishes Friday between rebel and government troops near the same spot where Serpa's caravan was turned around. Three rebels and one soldier died in the fighting, according to the army.

 The FARC's bold defiance comes one week before President Pastrana must decide whether to extend the life of the 16,200 square-mile rebel enclave set aside in 1998 as a stage for peace talks.

 ``This incident will undoubtedly hurt the peace process,'' former peace envoy Daniel García-Peña said. While García-Peña believes that despite the incident, Pastrana should renew the safe haven, ``this will raise the political cost of doing so.''

 Serpa agreed that Pastrana should continue the peace process with the FARC by renewing the zone. ``But I hope he uses the talks to underscore that the safe haven is meant to be a zone for peace,'' he said.

 The slow peace talks got a boost last week with a cease-fire proposal that both the FARC and government are said to be studying seriously.

 But public sentiment against the zone has grown with evidence that the FARC is using the area as a holding pen for kidnap victims and a springboard for attacks on
 surrounding towns. There are allegations, as well, that members of the Irish Republican Army traveled to the zone to train guerrillas in the use of explosives.

                                    © 2001